tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post4809630396273121306..comments2018-12-19T19:01:23.363-08:00Comments on One Dumb Travel Bum: Why Travel, Part 2: Human ConflictNemo Taylornoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-30857064711367475682014-03-06T17:21:27.235-08:002014-03-06T17:21:27.235-08:00I apologize in advance for going off topic to resp...I apologize in advance for going off topic to respond to Saber&#39;s off-topic critique of my comment, but, Saber, I would have thought that both Nemo&#39;s post and my original two-part comment were directed to solving the peace/war problem. So I would have thought it was NOT fighting. Saber, what, exactly, about my style makes you think that? Can you give an example?<br /><br />Yes, hypothetically I could have fully agreed with Nemo, but then, why would I post something so long? Indeed, to have cleanly avoided your alleged non-criticism, my comments would have had to been in full agreement with Nemo&#39;s post. Anything else is confrontational, at least to some extent. And since information is surprise (Shannon&#39;s law), such a “butt-kiss comment” would have had little information, and only some due to my well known unique outlook and extreme creativity. (Yes, I tend to disagree with more opinions than most.) Also, my comment was long, so to have cleanly avoided your &quot;critique&quot;, it would have been a big waste of space, like many of the comments on blogs merely agreeing with what was already said.<br /><br />As best I can tell, your “critique” universally applies to all useful (i.e., non-redundant) comments on blogs. It just follows from Shannon&#39;s law. So, again, Saber, might I ask why, exactly, you are bringing it out here?Jason Taylor in Marylandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08227071988359221466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-65029419364183386332014-03-06T17:18:34.020-08:002014-03-06T17:18:34.020-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jason Taylor in Marylandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08227071988359221466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-6451344917834509942014-02-23T09:48:26.587-08:002014-02-23T09:48:26.587-08:00&quot;Jonathan Swift: &quot;Most sorts of diversio...&quot;Jonathan Swift: &quot;Most sorts of diversion in men, children, and other animals, is an imitation of fighting.&quot; (1704, source.)<br /><br />Your post and writing style only serves to reinforce his point. Not that there&#39;s anything wrong with that.saberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00572863374285724310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-22454962696703962112014-02-23T09:48:05.461-08:002014-02-23T09:48:05.461-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.saberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00572863374285724310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-44381766996696403002014-02-23T09:41:55.320-08:002014-02-23T09:41:55.320-08:00Same advice from Cory Doctorow on 2/9:
&quot;Rando...Same advice from Cory Doctorow on 2/9:<br /><a href="http://boingboing.net/2004/02/09/random-advice-for-co.html" rel="nofollow">&quot;Random advice for composition&quot;</a><br />saberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00572863374285724310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-19485669820049373012014-02-18T20:16:47.804-08:002014-02-18T20:16:47.804-08:00No, IMO, it isn’t anonymous genes. And it isn&#39...No, IMO, it isn’t anonymous genes. And it isn&#39;t me. Please. The common people I know already love their neighbors. They already hate war. The question an intelligent person aware of this fact must ask at some point in their lives is as follows: if most people around the world hate war, why are there so many wars? Why does America especially seem to go to war constantly?<br /><br />A logical conclusion I can think of is that the common people aren’t really in power at all. A force of evil you promised to expose but conveniently omitted is. Within the field of your post, we can call it what Eisenhower did: <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=ktcchS2VVEo" rel="nofollow">the military industrial complex</a>. It owns you, me, and us all. Every cell in our bodies. <br /><br />How? I don’t know. That’s the big question. But I have theories. Perhaps the first day in office, they tell a newly elected president to sit back and watch a nice albeit short movie. They give him or her a bag of popcorn with extra butter and salt. What film is it? The zapruder film. They explain how they’d be happy to make a sequel starring the new president if their orders aren’t followed to the letter. That’s even how you got your $$ to travel, working for a defense contractor. A little ironic. (Are you one of them, just playing dumb?) And can you think of a single member of your tribe who has amassed a good nice chunk of money but didn’t get it from an entity tied into the vast military industrial complex? I can’t, but it depends how you define “tied.” <br /><br />According to your post, violence is wanted, instead of imposed. You got it backwards, IMO. And are you really so naive to think it is by popular demand that that the top games are first person shooters involving guns, killing, and destruction? (That there isn’t any best-selling computer adventure game?) That our sports events have us hate and detest the nearby school in venues like homecoming games? That most of the top blockbuster movies feature guns, killing, and destruction? That the super bowls are kicked off with military aircraft flying overhead? Despite all this, most of us still love each other, because that’s our true DNA. It overpowers the forces of evil which by it’s glaring omission your post is arguably a part of.<br /><br />Have you learned nothing from your travels to know not to blame those who you met for the biggest evils of this world? You say that after the Chinese strangers welcomed you at the bar, *you* could no longer hate *them*. But who made the first move? *Those Chinese probably never visited the USA.* They already welcomed you. They don’t hate us. They never did! Can’t you see that? <br /><br />Does it matter? Yes. Completely. If you are right, we’re screwed. And isn’t that exactly what they’d want us to think? Since, from your view, our DNA is ultimately to blame, sponsoring youth travel would be like canoeing upstream. Might help, doesn’t hurt, and a reason to travel, which was a point of your post I agree with. But remember, the common people *already* hate war and want world peace. That’s really not the main problem; IMO, you are 90% wrong. But, if Eisenhower was right, we can do specific things to bring about world peace. Hint: for starters, we could legislatively overturn the decision summarized by <a href="http://fb.com/photo.php?fbid=10201627204585459this" rel="nofollow">this</a>cartoon.Jason Taylor in Marylandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08227071988359221466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-18697323078084303082014-02-18T20:07:51.106-08:002014-02-18T20:07:51.106-08:00Part 1 of 2 (due to a limitation on allowed commen...Part 1 of 2 (due to a limitation on allowed comment size) It&#39;s times like this I wish I were more ignorant, for I could give your post a thumbs up and move about my evening. But the boldness of your promise in part I, “I am about to attempt to explain the human condition, the nature of good and evil, and the meaning of life and death itself” largely precludes that.<br /><br />IMO, more travel would not eliminate war, for you are wrong on the true primary cause. Your post implies the primary cause is us, the common man, who hates our neighbors for no good reason and likes war, since it is in our DNA. If only this were as bad as blaming an addiction on one’s genes instead of a lack of will power. It’s far worse.<br /><br />Off hand, I don’t know the name of the logical error you made, I guess correlation = causation, but you attribute the end macroscopic effects to unimportant microscopic agents. It is like blaming bullets instead of criminals. The easiest way for me to show what is mostly wrong with the part of your post discussing the main cause of war is to ask how many pro-war politicians have ever gotten legally elected by the true majority? Not too many, IMO. I can’t think of many. Can you? What I see is politicians getting elected the opposite, pro-peace platform, but mysteriously going to war anyway after moving to office. That’s not just common, it seems to be a universal truth. Nixon was a classic example, getting elected to end the present war (viet nam) peacefully, only to keep us there and start new ones, many of which weren’t uncovered for years and which you probably don’t know about even today. Him giving his iconic peace/victory sign just shows how big the disconnect is. This data seems largely incompatible with your post, which places the blame for wars not only on the wrong entity, but an entity so conveniently distributed it cannot realistically be held accountable.Jason Taylor in Marylandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08227071988359221466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-38733810357340236742013-11-26T19:52:42.597-08:002013-11-26T19:52:42.597-08:00Agree with Nathan&#39;s points....I felt that the ...Agree with Nathan&#39;s points....I felt that the post started out with tribalism and mutated into save the planet and you perhaps didn&#39;t realize it.<br /><br />Glad to see you keep pushing forward on the blog.Zachariahtaylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00504201240328714636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-68800284229522660772013-11-21T15:45:25.096-08:002013-11-21T15:45:25.096-08:00Wow excellent feedback Nathan thank you. You know ...Wow excellent feedback Nathan thank you. You know i do like peter singers work and have read some of it but was turned off by his extension of consciousness to all living things. But yes my next post will get into this mystical stuff . Good tip on ledeNemo Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02153967206001544262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-22855209287979384532013-11-21T11:39:08.567-08:002013-11-21T11:39:08.567-08:00You asked for some writing feedback. I&#39;ll spli...You asked for some writing feedback. I&#39;ll split it into 3 parts.<br /><br />1. Overall. Really liked this post. You hit your points and explained something I wasn&#39;t sure about. Why you like to travel put into a larger context. With that said, I was a bit confused on what journalists call the lede, your single key point. Not sure if the lede is travel beats tribalism for greater society, travel makes you personally beat tribalism, or the last part about overview of earth and saving the planet. You could have broken this out into multiple posts, or found a version of the lede that held them more tightly together. But a nitpick.<br /><br />2. Writing style. Again, liked it. But felt you hit some of your points repetitively at times. For example the south park goths section could have been cut, since your history examples are stronger and then you have your China experience which is also great. One trick here which I like is a) write a quick outline, b) write your post, c) do what&#39;s called a reverse outline after the fact. A reverse outline is an outline of what you actually wound up writing. This helps you cut repetition. Sometimes the reverse outline also makes you realize that your lede turned out different than the one you started with. At that point you sometimes (if you have the energy) rewrite. In fact the most common flaw in writing is to &quot;bury the lede&quot;. For me this happens because the lede turns out different than what I thought it was at the outset. If nothing else, I now proofread to make sure I know what the lede is in the finished post. Half the time it&#39;s mutated while writing and catching this helps when you edit, assuming you have the energy for it. Here&#39;s a link on reverse outline<br />http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ReverseOutlines.html<br /><br />3. Homework. The foundational thinker with an evolutionary slant on morality and tribalism, and attempting to expand your tribe to encompass the larger world is Peter Singer. In particular his 1983 book The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress. I actually found it not as good as I hoped, but it&#39;s worth reading and citing. I think people like David Sloan Wilson have taken that idea and run with it further. In fact, Singer is probably best known not for this book, but for a later book where he expands the &quot;circle&quot; to include animals. So he&#39;s best known as an animal rights activist. Again, think you&#39;ll nod your head if you read him.<br />http://www.amazon.com/The-Expanding-Circle-Evolution-Progress/dp/0691150699<br /><br />Anyway, enjoyed the post. Take the reaction for what it is, my own narrow, tribal response. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-30289545833830159622013-11-19T12:59:46.109-08:002013-11-19T12:59:46.109-08:00One more link and then I&#39;m seriously putting n...One more link and then I&#39;m seriously putting nose back to the grindstone, &quot;Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)&quot; http://blog.properrussian.com/2011/05/why-russians-are-not-smiling.html<br /><br />-saberAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-71364816095170460942013-11-19T12:40:21.262-08:002013-11-19T12:40:21.262-08:00The first astronauts had alcohol problems and depr...The first astronauts had alcohol problems and depression afterwards but now the space agencies have better support for them. I was reading a Chris Hadfield article and was surprised by that, since they are supposed to have nerves of steel.<br /><br />I&#39;m not supposed to notice things (hmm can&#39;t sign in with account - guess I.T. doesn&#39;t want me on blogs right now) but I&#39;ve noticed that Chinese speaking in English and Chinese sound like two different personalities. (But that could be due to audience, not -.) This is cultural information where I gain knowledge and become more adaptive to my world, not a shout of Jericho and all is one. But your way is more pleasant.<br /><br />-saberAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973431150120446727.post-57660649452888842632013-11-19T11:53:12.958-08:002013-11-19T11:53:12.958-08:00http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/08/tut...http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/08/tutsi-differ-genetically-from-the-hutu/<br /><br />-saber<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com